“Yes,” Eliza replied, entering the hallway.
“And what will you say, exactly?”
She walked down the hallway toward Room 5. “I’ll just introduce myself.” She was at the door within seconds, and rapped on it three times.
No one answered. Eliza pressed her ear against the wood and listened. “There’s no sound,” she whispered. “The crying has stopped.” She knocked again. After waiting, she said, “Is anyone inside? Please come to the door.”
They waited; still no response.
“Go back to Room 6,” Eliza said, “and see if you can still hear the crying.”
Robert left her and returned down the hall. Eliza pressed her ear against the wood of the door once again, but no sound emerged.
Robert came back within a minute. “Yes,” he said. “I can still hear crying inside.”
Eliza reached for the door handle. It didn’t open, so she shook it the same way she’d shaken the handle on Room 6, and after a few rapid movements, the door popped open.
“How do you do that?” Robert asked.
“Old locks,” Eliza replied.
“Something Aceveda taught you?”
“Yes.”
She pushed the door open, and they walked inside. It was empty and silent.
“Wanda?” Eliza called. “Are you in here?”
No reply.
Then the smell hit them, and Eliza held a hand to her nose. “Oh, that is bad!”
Robert began a quick search of the room. Eliza walked to a dresser, where items were laid out. Most were cosmetics and brushes, but there was a small cardboard shoe box with a lid. She picked it up; things rattled inside.
“No one’s here,” Robert said. “I think we should leave before someone shows up.”
Eliza opened the shoebox; it contained many small bones, some with bits of flesh still clinging to cartilage.
“What is this?” Eliza muttered. Robert came up behind her.
“They’re small,” Robert replied. “Animal bones, maybe?”
“Something else is in here,” Eliza said, reaching into the box, her fingers sliding between the bones toward an object buried underneath them. She pulled out a small set of garden shears. They were old and rusty.
“Taken from the garden shed?” Robert offered.
“Maybe,” Eliza replied, dropping them back into the box and replacing the lid. She returned it to the dresser. “OK, let’s go. This room gives me the creeps.”
“And it smells like a sewer!” Robert added.
They walked to the hallway and made their way back to their room.
“I feel like I need a shower,” Robert said. “That smell is all over me.” He turned to her. “Want to join me?”
She smiled at him, and within seconds he was at her side. She felt his strong hands at her back, pressing her against him. They kissed; a long, slow kiss that wasn’t in any kind of rush. When they finally separated, Robert lifted her backward, toward the bed.
They hadn’t made it very far when noise from outside reached them. Robert stopped and rose from the bed, looking out the window.
“Some kind of commotion going on out there,” he said. “Everyone’s leaving their rooms, going to check on it.”
“Should we?” Eliza said, sliding off the bed.
“It looks like something is wrong with Mack,” Robert said, a deeper level of concern entering his voice. “Ivan is carrying him in. Abbey and Teresa are out there, too.”
“Come on,” Eliza said, headed for the door. They ran down the hallway, catching Ivan as he brought Mack inside and placed the boy in a chair in the entryway. There was a gash in Mack’s pants; Eliza could see blood. The room soon filled with other guests, wanting to know what had happened.
Eliza knelt next to Mack. “Can I see?” she asked. He nodded.
She parted a two-inch slash in his pants mid-thigh, exposing a wound the was still oozing blood.
“What happened?” Robert asked.
“He’s been stabbed!” Ivan said. “That girl!”
“Was it Wanda?” Eliza asked Mack.
He nodded.
“Stabbed with what?” Robert asked.
“It’s out there on the ground,” Ivan said. “I pulled it from his leg and dropped it.”
Robert rushed outside. Eliza stayed with Mack.
“That horrid little girl!” Teresa said. “They should have locked her up, just as Mister Lyons said. Now look what has happened!”
“Does it hurt?” Eliza asked, looking up at Mack. He nodded again, bravely holding back tears. “What a stupid question, of course it hurts,” she said. “Where did she go? Wanda?”
“I don’t know!” Mack replied. “She just ran off!”
“That little fiend!” Teresa said. “This must stop!”
Robert returned from the front. In his hand was a pair of garden shears. He held them out to Ivan and Mack. “This?” he asked. “She stabbed you with these?”
Mack nodded.
“That’s what I pulled from his leg!” Ivan said. He leaned down to his son and scooped him from the chair. “I’m going to take him to our room so I can treat the wound.” He walked down the hall.
“Do you need any help?” Eliza called.
“No!” Ivan called back. “And we’ll be gone by the end of the day. I’m not staying in this place another night while that girl is here!”
“Get him a tetanus shot!” Robert called. “These shears look rusty!”
Eliza turned back to the small group in the entryway. In addition to Abbey and Teresa, there were a couple of other people she hadn’t met.
“I don’t blame him one iota,” Abbey said. “Perhaps it’s time for us to move along, too, Teresa. She’s not just killing rabbits anymore.”
“You may be right,” Teresa replied, turning to walk down the hallway. “I need to take my medication. This has me all worked up to a state.”
“Oh, right,” Abbey said, following her. She turned to Eliza as she walked past. “Teresa takes a solution that calms her nerves.”
“Come along, Abbey,” Teresa called back. “It’s none of their business.”
Abbey smiled and hurried to follow along after Teresa. The other people in the entryway began to disperse, and soon Eliza found herself alone with Robert. He showed her the garden shears.
“Look familiar?” he asked.
She took them. They appeared exactly like the pair she’d seen earlier that day in Room 5, beneath the animal bones. “One way to know for sure.” She walked down the hallway, and Robert followed. When she reached Room 5, she knocked.
There was no answer.
“We’re going in,” Eliza said, handing the shears to Robert and jiggling the door handle until she had it open. They slipped inside, and Eliza walked to the dresser.
She opened the cardboard box; inside were the bones. No garden shears.
“It was her,” Eliza said.
“Come on,” Robert said. “I don’t like being in this room. The smell is killing me.”
Eliza replaced the box and they left the room. “I think it’s odd that we haven’t run into Martha or Wanda,” she said as they walked down the hall, Robert carrying the shears. “All these other people talk about them, but we never see them.”
“If Wanda stabbed Mack, I’m sure she’s hiding somewhere,” Robert replied, opening the door to their room. Once inside, he put the shears on a dresser and fell next to Eliza on the bed. “Now, where were we?”
“You were about to take a shower,” Eliza replied.
“Oh, right!” he said, rising from the bed and beginning to strip off his clothes.
Eliza waited on the bed while Robert showered, thinking over the events of the morning. Not at all what I expected from a quick trip to a quiet B&B, she thought. Not at all.
When Robert returned from the shower, they made love for what seemed like hours, finally relaxing and falling into the spell that only a quiet, remote B&B can provide.
And af
ter that, they both fell asleep.
Chapter Four
Eliza opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. For a moment she was afraid they had slept the afternoon away, but there was still light coming in through the windows. Better get up, she thought, or we’ll never fall asleep tonight.
She looked over at Robert. Although they drifted off on top of the bedspread, somehow they had both worked themselves under the covers. She gave him a gentle shake.
“Get up, sleepyhead. We’re going to nap the whole day away.”
“Fine with me,” he moaned. “How about we just stay in bed and do it again?”
“I’d like to check on Mack, if he’s still here,” she replied, getting out of bed. “But, a shower first.” She wandered into the bathroom and started the water.
Half an hour later, the two of them left the room. “I still want to find Milton,” Robert said. “I owe him a thanks for the invite. He has to be here somewhere.”
As they walked down the hallway, Eliza asked, “Anything look different to you?”
“Huh?” Robert replied. “No. Why?”
Eliza followed him as he walked toward the breakfast room. “Can’t put my finger on it.”
They arrived at the doors to the room, only to find them closed. A sign was hung from the door handles that read, “Please Don’t Enter.”
“OK,” Robert muttered. “I guess it’s only used for breakfast.”
They turned and walked back down the hallway, finally reaching the entryway. “Let’s try the kitchen again,” Robert suggested.
They entered the room. It was completely different. Modern appliances were arranged in one corner, and there were four round tables in the middle of the room, all empty.
“That was a quick remodel,” Robert muttered.
A man, blocked from view by an open refrigerator door, closed it and turned to face them. “There you are!” he said. “Welcome!” He gestured to one of the tables.
“Milton?” Robert asked.
“That’s me,” he said. “Have a seat. I’ll get you some coffee. Do you both drink coffee? Or would you like something else?”
“I usually avoid coffee later in the day,” Eliza replied.
“Of course!” Milton replied. “But how about with scrambled eggs and potatoes? That’s the menu.”
“Sure,” Eliza replied, sitting.
Robert joined her. “I’ll have some too,” he said.
“Did you both sleep OK?” Milton asked. “Everything alright with the room?”
“Uh, sure,” Eliza replied. “The room is nice.”
“Thanks for the invitation,” Robert added. “My uncle said you gave us a huge discount on the rate.”
“My pleasure,” Milton replied, setting coffee down in front of them. “I’ll start on the food in a little bit. It’s early still.”
Eliza was confused, so she searched the walls for a clock. The one on a microwave read 6:20.
“Robert,” she said, grabbing his arm. “It can’t be 6:20, can it?” She pointed to the microwave.
“No way,” he replied.
“You’re right about that,” Milton replied, smiling. “It’s really 7:20. I haven’t changed it since Daylight Savings Time. It’s complicated to adjust.”
“7:20?” Robert repeated. “We slept the entire afternoon away?”
“Afternoon?” Milton asked. “I’m glad to hear the bed in that room is so comfortable! It’s 7:20 in the morning.”
Eliza looked at Robert, still confused. “There’s no way.”
“We were pretty tired,” Robert muttered.
“Not that tired!” she replied.
“There’s only one other couple here at the moment,” Milton replied, “and since breakfast isn’t until 8:30, I won’t start on the food until around 8:15. That is, unless you two are starving. I have muffins if you’d like.”
“No, I’m fine,” Eliza said, her confusion growing. “One other couple? Ivan and Mack have left?”
Milton froze. “Ah, so it’s true.”
“What’s true?” Robert asked.
“What your uncle told me about your family,” Milton replied, not looking up from his coffee.
“What did he tell you?” Robert asked.
“He said you had…abilities. That your whole family did.” He looked at Eliza. “And I guess you must have the same abilities, too.”
“Why don’t you tell us what’s going on, Milton,” Robert said. “If we’ve been brought here under false pretenses…”
Milton waved his hand to stop him. “No, no false pretenses. I intended to talk to you about it this morning. You got in so late last night, I didn’t want to keep you up, talking about it after midnight. I figured it could wait until you’d had a good night’s sleep.”
“What could wait?” Eliza asked.
Milton paused. “Well, I went to Nathan hoping he’d come stay here, and see if there was anything he could do to help. He said he couldn’t, but he’d send you. I guess he didn’t bring up the part about helping.”
“No, he didn’t,” Robert said. “He only said there was a cheap room here if we wanted a weekend getaway.”
“Nothing about helping,” Eliza added.
“Well, my apologies for that,” Milton replied. “I assumed he would have at least mentioned my plight, and that it would be no big deal for us to discuss it after you settled in. You’ve…” He paused again. “…you’ve seen things already, haven’t you?”
“What’s the date?” Eliza asked.
“It’s the 23rd,” Milton replied.
She turned to Robert. “It’s the next day. Everything we thought was yesterday played out while we slept.”
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A Haunting In Wisconsin.
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